What Happened to Media Made for Tween and Teenage Girls?
It’s May 2003. A young teen girl comes home from school with a new Seventeen magazine waiting for her in the mailbox. Later, she’ll catch the latest episode of Gilmore Girls, and then continue reading the recently released sequel of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This weekend, she’s looking forward to seeing The Lizzie McGuire Movie in theaters with her friends.
Back then, this was the norm. There seemed to be no shortage of media made for tween and young teenage girls. Countless shows, movies, books, magazines, and music were created just for the demographic of 10-14 year-old girls. They had plenty of content to look to for entertainment, inspiration, and to bond over with other girls.
Can the same be said for today? Are there hit tween shows like Hannah Montana, or blockbuster movies made for young girls such as The Princess Diaries? When was the last time a teenage girl flipped through a Teen Vogue magazine?
The reality is: media created for young female audiences has largely disappeared.
What happened?
Several factors have contributed to this decline. One of these is the high usage of social media among tweens and teens. Research found that nearly 40% of children in the age range of 8-12 use social media. In addition, it was discovered that up to 95% of youth aged 13-17 use some type of social media platform. Tweens and teens used to spend their free time watching weekly network television shows or reading magazines. Now, they are scrolling for hours on end.
Extensive time spent on social media has also pushed tweens and young teens into media that is more suitable for older audiences. Many young girls are tuning into mature shows like Euphoria because social media influencers post about it. These younger girls don’t want to be left out, and they take inspiration from social media, so they end up consuming content that is not appropriate for their age range.
Networks and studios, however, are to blame as well. In recent years, media companies have been failing to produce consistent and relevant content for 10-14 year old girls. This age range is dismissed in favor of creating movies or shows with mass appeal, or for audiences they deem as “more profitable.” Older teens and adults have plenty of content options while tweens and younger teens are left with little to nothing that represent them.
Even when successful content for young girls is produced nowadays, it tends to be overlooked or lasts a short time. The Netflix show Julie and the Phantoms is a prime example of this. The show had a target audience of tweens and teens, and although it received positive reviews and won multiple Daytime Emmy Awards, it was cancelled unexpectedly after just one season. Similarly, the critically acclaimed tween show The Baby-Sitter’s Club was cancelled after only two seasons.
The lack of media made for tween and young teenage girls is a problem. Tweens deserve to have media that is made just for them. They deserve to have access to meaningful stories that make them feel seen, heard, and inspired.
At Girls Geared for Greatness, we advocate for more media made for young girls.
Their voices and experiences matter.